The present invention relates to the synchronization of a central station with a communications device, and more specifically, such synchronization wherein a communication standard through which the communications device communicates with base station infrastructure is not utilized to achieve such synchronization, but rather such synchronization is independent of the communication standard, whereby modification of the communication standard and the base station infrastructure is unnecessary in order to achieve such synchronization.
Recently, technologies have been developed wherein a remotely-located device such as an automobile, can be controlled from a central station through the use of a communications device, and an appropriate interface at the remotely-located device. In this way, features such as unlocking the doors of the automobile can be achieved from a central station, should the operator of the vehicle forget his/her keys in the automobile. One such system to implement this new technology is the ON-STAR System now available with automobiles made by General Motors.
Problematically, even communications devices such as hand-held portable cellular telephones, which are generally designed to be optimized for maximum battery life, draw too much current from an automobile's battery to be left operative for an extended period of time, such as a period of a day or more. Thus, it is highly desirable to deactivate the communications device most of the time, activating it only for brief periods during which it can monitor a communication channel for incoming pages, i.e. calls.
Problematically, during periods when the communications device is deactivated, and thus conserving battery life, incoming pages from base station infrastructure will be ignored. Thus, a mechanism must be employed to assure that at least some of such pages are initiated by the central station during periods when the communications device is active.
For example, one approach to assuring that pages destined for a particular mobile station are sent while such particular mobile station is active is to use the existing base station infrastructure and a communications standard associated therewith to synchronize operation of the central station and the mobile station. This can be done, for example, by defining a protocol for a control channel that directs the communications device as to when it should activate and deactivate. In such an arrangement, because the base station infrastructure is aware of the communications device's activate/deactivate cycling, having instructed the communications device as to when to activate and when to deactivate, the base station infrastructure can pass this information on to the central station and can assure that pages are sent only when the communications device is active.
Alternatively, the base station infrastructure may simply hold pages from the central station in a queue until the base station infrastructure determines that the communications device should be activated.
Unfortunately, these approaches require the establishment of a protocol for a control channel in the communication channel used by the base station infrastructure and the communications device so as to provide for methods of instructing the communications device as to the timing of its activate/deactivate cycling and to enable the base station infrastructure to communication this activate/deactivate cycling to the central station or to queue up pages until the communications device is to become activated. Problematically, the modification of existing protocols for the base station infrastructure requires modification of the communication standard employed, by the base station infrastructure, which presents both technical as well as political challenges.
The present invention advantageously addresses the above and other needs.